Thursday, October 27, 2016

Disney, Day 3 - Magic Kingdom!

Today was the much anticipated Magic Kingdom day! We had planned to spend our last full day at Magic Kingdom too, but unfortunately a hurricane was headed directly for Florida and it was not looking good. So, we made sure we did EVERYTHING we wanted to do on this day just in case we weren't able to come back. 

We started with the Jungle Cruise. I think we started with this the last time we went too! 

My kids love the Magic Carpet Ride! Especially when the camel spits water at your mom and dad and they get wet! :)

We did Pirates of the Caribbean and then we hit up Splash Mountain! This ride gives me extreme anxiety! I do not like going up the hill on the last drop! And we were already soaked by the time we had even gotten to that point, so it just piled on even more! This was another one that Harrison liked, but said he did not want to do it again! 

Thunder Mountain was unfortunately closed while we were there. I was so sad as it was one of Hudson's favorite rides the last time and I just knew Harrison would love it. Oh well, I'm sure there will be another trip!

At some point we made it over to Tomorrowland and did the race cars. Harrison was cracking me up on this ride! He was NOT a good driver! There was a lot of jerking around and our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard!

 Joel and Harrison kept hitting us while we were waiting to get off. I had some serious whiplash! Ha!


Then it was time for our Space Mountain fast pass. This was awesome as usual! Harrison wasn't so sure about it, but he did end up riding it multiple times and came back saying it was his favorite ride! 

 We rode Dumbo too! One of the classics...

And I know we did Goofy's Barnstormer ride, which ranked up near the top of Harrison's favorite ride list! We actually rode that ride probably 8 times over the course of the week! We also did Peter Pan and It's a Small World.

Later in the afternoon, it started to cloud up and we knew a storm was coming so we started making our way to the exit. We wanted to rest a bit before heading back that night for the Not So Scary Halloween Party.








 Cheesy Magic Kingdom picture! Joel was loving this picture. He was a good sport!


 On our way out, we decided to go see Mickey at the Town Theater. This was our favorite Mickey from our last trip because he talks, and we knew we had to see him again. He definitely did not disappoint! This is extreme picture overload.



 Mickey taught the boys how to fly like Peter Pan!








 When we left Mickey, the storm had arrived and it was pouring!! We put on our rain jackets and ran to the monorail. We still got soaked, but it was an adventure for the boys for sure.

We rested for a bit, let the rain go on, and then headed back into the park. The rain had made us lose our fast pass for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but thankfully, we were still able to use it later on. I was pretty mad when I thought we lost it because it was the one ride that was pretty much next to impossible to wait in the standby line. It was consistently 80-90 minute waits, even at the Halloween Party that night when supposedly the lines were going to be super short. Not this night. I think the lines were even worse than during the day.

We made it on and it was great! Definitely one of our top rides of the week! Harrison LOVED it.


We had reservations at Be Our Guest at 6:50. I was a little worried about this when this got booked because we had paid extra for for the Halloween Party and I felt like this was going to take up time from the low numbers in the park and I absolutely did not want to miss the Halloween parade. We did not get seated until close to 7:30 and the parade was at 8:30. We were really rushed. To the point that we could not really enjoy dinner and it really was so so so good! Definitely our best meal that week. We even had to skip out on dessert because we were going to miss the parade. If I could go back and change one thing about the trip, it would be this. But, we wanted to go to Be Our Guest and knew the boys would love seeing the beast as he only is out at dinner. The boys did love it!









We raced to find a spot in Liberty Square for the parade. It was slammed with people already, but the boys snuck in through the crowd and somehow landed seats right in the front. And then somehow I was able to squeeze in and sit with them! Relief! We made it! 


This parade was great! I was so glad we did not miss it. It led with the Headless Horseman and the boys have been tucking their heads in their shirts to re-enact it ever since! It was so neat! 

And we are all still singing the Boo to You song!!!



After that we finally were able to hit up some rides. We did the Haunted Mansion that night which scared the heck out of Harrison! It was a great way to get ready for Halloween though! 

 We watched the light show at Cinderella's castle which was so neat, and the fireworks and decided that we had done it all that day!

 It was a good, long day filled with so much fun!!!


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Disney, Day 2 - Hollywood Studios!

We spent Day 2 at Hollywood Studios. This was the one park last time that we really did not love all that much, but I am so glad we spent the whole day here this trip. We really enjoyed it, especially Hudson! I think Star Wars has a lot to do with it. It was like Star Wars blew up on this park. 

And Star Wars was the main reason why we wanted to take the boys the first day because we just knew that they would love the Jedi Training. We got there as soon as the park opened (well maybe 10 or so minutes after give or take) and headed immediately to the sign up. They were already FULL for the day! :( We had some sad boys. The guy said that it never fills up as fast as it did on that day. We ran into someone later in the day that had gotten to the park at 7:15 that morning to get in line (park doesn't open until 9). So I guess we missed that memo. We promised the boys we would do it another day, but honestly, after seeing the other kids doing it, they weren't all that dying to do it anymore. And I really wasn't dying to be at the park at 7:15 am to wait in line for an hour and 45 minutes for five minutes of fighting Darth Vader! 

We had breakfast reservations at Hollywood & Vine as soon as we got there. Harrison really still enjoys the Disney Jr. shows and characters, so we knew he would love this. What we didn't know is that Hudson would still love it as much as he did! 







Then it was on to our fast pass for Star Tours!

We did the Great Movie Ride after Star Tours and then it was on to the Frozen Sing Along. Harrison loves Frozen. He won't admit it anymore, in fact, tells you he strongly dislikes it, but he actually does love it. He did not sing a single word even though he knows them all, but when we planned to get up a few minutes early so we could make it to the Indiana Jones Stunt show, Harrison said no way! He was not leaving! I think this smile tells it all...

Hudson and Joel went on to the Indiana Jones show and we were actually able to sneak in and see it too when Frozen was over! We all loved it!

Then it was on to the Toy Story ride, our favorite in Hollywood Studios! Joel and Hudson crushed Harrison in me in score, but we all had so much fun!

 We took a few photos at some point that afternoon!



It was then time for the Tower of Terror! Joel refused to ride it, so it was the boys and me. Looking back on it, Harrison was probably a little too young for this one, but he willingly did it! Just didn't "willingly" do it again! :)

I forgot how scary this ride is. I hate free falls. Why I took my two little boys on it, I will never know! We were all a bit terrified! I was more worried about them as you can see in the picture below!

 Harrison got off the ride and said he liked it, but that he never wanted to ride it again! :)

I really cannot remember what else we did that afternoon, but we ate dinner at Mama Melrose and it was SO good! No pictures, but just imagine good ole' italian food. Yum!

After dinner, Harrison and Joel called it a night and went back to the hotel, and Hudson and I had a little night fun and went to the Rock N Rollercoaster. I knew Hudson, my daredevil child, would love this ride. He thought it was so awesome that once we got off the ride, we immediately got back in line and did it again!!! Thankful for fast passes and short lines on this night! He loved the thrill! It's a good one for sure!


I really wanted to stay for the Fantasmic show, but since Joel and Harrison had already left (I forgot to mention that Joel had a touch of the stomach bug that day that the boys both had and wasn't feeling all that hot), and Hudson said he was ready to go too, I didn't push it. I knew sleep was just as important, especially this early in our trip! So, we headed out too.

We had such a fun day! Next up, our day at the Magic Kingdom!